Process of producing artificial sausage skins



July 26, 1938. G. HUCKFELDT ET AL 5 9 PROCESS OF PRODUCING ARTIFICAL SAUSAGE sxms Filed Nov. 5, 1957 Patented July 26, 1938 UNITED STATES PROCESS OF PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL SAUSAGE SKINS Gebhard Huckfeldt and Armin Be ta i Altona-on-thelilbe, Germany Application November 3, 1937, Serial Np. 172,638 In Germany July 21, 1936 This invention relates to a process of producing artificial sausage skins.

Artificial sausage skins consisting of a seamless fabric tube made for instance of natural silk and saturated .with a subsequently hardened mass of comminuted fibers of animal tissue are known. However, as the fabric tube wound upon a mandrel is saturated in a bath of animal tissue fibers swelled up in water, only thin solutions of this mass which possesses great swelling capacity can be used with the result that the skins produced are correspondingly weak and have little resistance.

Furthermore, it is diflicult to prevent the inner wall of the tube from sticking together during drying, and the introduction of rings or rods into the tube for preventing this and their subsequent removal are bothersome operations. This practice, moreover, easily causes damage to the skins and during hardening of the latter involves less contraction at the places where the rings or rods have been inserted. Another drawback is that such skins do not possess sufficient resistance to withstand inflation and will be destroyed or lifted off from their fabric support at slight pneumatic pressure.

The invention overcomes these difficulties by applying a thick paste of plastic consistency to the inner wall of the fabric tube instead of saturating the tube from without with a relatively thin solution as in the prior practice referred to above. within an annular nozzle to the inner wall of a fabric tube guided by the'nozzle and tied at the top whilst simultaneously the portion of the fabric tube being treated is subjected from within to strong air pressure so as to fpfceihe ,mass, from within the fabric tube, into the nieshe of the fabric, to close them and to inflate the tr ated portion to tautness. The artificial casing thus produced is preferably kept taut until it is completely dried tov prevent portions of the wall from sticking together. The plastic mass to be applied preferably consists of a swelling of comminuted portions of animal tissue having a dry content of 2% to 25%.

It is known to employ a core supplied with a fabric cover formolding seamless artificial cases of a mass consisting of animal or vegetable albuminous substances without a fabric insertion, but the mass is not permitted to penetrate the meshes of the fabric cover and to adhere to the threads of the fabric, as the cover is detached from the molded mass after drying. It is also known to produce sausage skins of regenerated The mass to be applied passes cellulose or a cellulose derivative sensitive to water the inside of which is covered with a layer of gelatin or gelatinous substances. The actual sausage skin consists of cellulose having an inner coating and is swelled with gas under pressure to dry the coating. In contradiction to this method, the skin according to the invention is molded from the mass applied and the thin tubular external fabric serves as support.

By way of example, the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing which shows an elevation, partly in section, of a device adapted for carrying out the process according to the invention.

Referring to the drawing, l is the base plate to which the vertical mass supplying pipe 2 is secured by the flange 3. The lower portion I? of the pipe 2 is expanded and connected with the inlet pipe 5 leading to a press, not shown. Inside the pipe 2 a core holder 5, also secured to the base plate l, is provided and possesses a bore extending through its entire length to form the channel It which serves as passage for compressed air. Between the inner circumference of the pipe 2 and the outer circumference of the core holder 5 a. free annular space M opens into a nozzle comprising the core 5 and the nozzle ring I. The core 6 resembling a truncated cone is attached to the holder 5 and held in position by the check nut 8. The nozzle ring 1, also of truncated conical shape, is arranged on the top plate 9 which is supported by the stay bolts ill. The top plate 9 and the nozzle ring 1 can be readily removed to facilitate Winding of the fabric tube ll upon the pipe 2.

To produce an artificial sausage skin the mass is fed to the pipe 2 by the pipe I and distributed within the lower expansion 12 thereof. The. mass is then forced through the annular space M and on emerging from the mouth thereof passes into the space I5. Between the inner wall of the ring I and the core 6 an annular gap I6 is formed through which the fabric tube ll wound upon the pipe 2 and tied on top is drawn. From the mouth of the annular space M whence it emerges and wherein it spreads out the mass passes to the inner wall of the tube H and is uniformly applied thereto while the tube H is being drawn through the annular gap 16 produced by the core 8 and the nozzle ring I. Simultaneously, compressed air is blown through the channel II of the core holder 5 to insure tautness of the treated portion of the fabric of the tube H and to force the mass applied to the inner wall into the meshes and pores thereof.

We claim: inside the tube and simultaneously insuring taut A process of producing artificial sausage skins, inflation of the p r ifln 0f the e coa d with consisting in applying apastelike mass of undispa e-l ke 111 88. id tube being k p closed t solved comminuted proteinaceous animal tissue i s end- 5 having a dry content of at least 2% to the inner GEBHARD HUCKFELDT.

wall of a fabric tube, forcing the mass into the ARMIN BERGMANN. meshes of the fabric by compressed air acting 

